ICE Agent facing punishment for …arresting Illegal Immigrant

This came to light over the weekend, and I saw it on Fox News. I like to have at least two sources for an article, in order to compare the reports. Unfortunately, ….I’m still waiting for someone else to cover it.

FOX NEWS — Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., is demanding answers after a report surfaced that a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent is facing punishment for arresting an illegal immigrant.

The unidentified agent could face a three-day suspension after he arrested a 35-year-old illegal immigrant from Mexico who had as many as 10 traffic violations. He was nabbed in Newark, Del.

The agent was ordered by supervisors to release the individual because he was not a “priority target.” When the officer balked, he was threatened with a three-day suspension and the illegal alien was let go.

“The actions that it appears were taken by your agency send a message to agents in the field that they will be punished for doing their duty and enforcing the law,” Sessions wrote in an letter to ICE Director John Morton and obtained exclusively by Fox News.

A spokesperson for the Newark Police Dept. told Fox News that had an American citizen been stopped under the same circumstances – they would have been jailed. Sessions said that is a troubling revelation.

“Federal law enforcement should certainly not be giving illegal aliens more preferential treatment that is afforded American citizens,” Sessions wrote. “Your agency’s apparent treatment of the criminal alien sends the troubling message that the demands of public safety are trumped by the desire for reduced deportations of those deemed ‘not presidential priorities.’”

Sessions is demanding that ICE provide a detailed account of the events involving the agent along with an explanation of why the illegal alien was released and allowed to pose a threat to public safety.

Word of the agent’s pending punishment for simply doing his job has outraged ICE agents.

“They’re punishing law enforcement officers who are just trying to uphold U.S. law,” said Chris Crane, president of the National ICE Council. Crane is a union representative acting on the unidentified officer’s behalf.

The officer under fire is an 18-year law enforcement and military veteran.

“They’re willing to take away their retirement, their job, their ability to support their families in favor of someone who is here illegally and violating our laws,” Crane told Fox News. “Right now (the Obama administration) is standing in the way of us enforcing the law by either taking a disciplinary action, threats of disciplinary action, or refusing to sign off on charging documents to put an illegal alien into immigration proceedings so a judge can sort it out.”

“If a law enforcement officer can’t perform routine enforcement functions, what do we have a law enforcement agency for?,” Crane wondered.

So, our immigration agents aren’tsupposed to arrest illegals? This is so head-shakingly bizarre, even I’m stunned.

Then, I read the account from the arresting ICE officer, and ended up even more blown away. Also from Fox News:

The individual was not their criminal alien target. However, he was a 35-year-old illegal immigrant from Mexico who had ten previous traffic violations – including driving without a license.

“The officer made the determination using prosecutorial discretion that he would charge (the suspect) as being in the United States illegally and let the judge sort it out,” Crane said.

“That’s our place in the universe,” he said. “We’re supposed to make arrests and let the judges and the legal system sort through the details.”

Instead, two supervising officers, including the acting field director, intervened and ordered the officer to releasethe illegal immigrant. The acting field director sat down with the illegal and explained that he was going to be let go because he was not a “presidential priority,” Crane said.

In essence, the supervising officers took on the role of a public defender.

Over and over, we’ve seen Obama and his band of stooges flout the law, ignore court orders (unless they are favorable) and/or doing through executive orders what they can’t get done through normal channels. This has become the new normal.

In the case of illegal immigration, we now have a de facto new rule: illegal immigrants have MORE rights than legal citizens, since they seemingly can’t be arrested for being here illegally or for violations which occurred after they “arrived” here. Wonderful news, eh? Basically, we have given them diplomatic immunity. As Yakov Smirnoff might say, “What a country…”

There is a storm brewing, folks. I feel in my bones there will be a huge referendum against this Administration’s band of thugs in November. There’s an interesting post which articulates exactly whyI believe that will be the case (which I’ll cover later this week), but rest assured: if we do everything in our power to oust these cretins from their positions of power, it’ll happen.